Rhubarb Yoghurt muffins
Cookbook Challenge: Week 20
Theme: Tangy
Recipe: Rhubarb Yoghurt muffins
Cookbook: Vegetarian cooking, a commonsense guide
The theme for this week’s Cookbook Challenge is “tangy”, and first up I must make a confession. I cheated this week – I actually made these muffins last week! I was going to make a fresh recipe for the theme this week, but in keeping with our long weekend tradition we did some more house painting on Good Friday (our bedroom and our ensuite). It looks fantastic, but painting seems to suck all the energy from me for the rest of the weekend and I couldn’t muster up the motivation to do anything today!
A colleague of mine gave me some rhubarb from her garden, and I used them in these muffins last weekend. I love it when people give me food – particularly when they have grown it themselves! Coincidentally, the muffins fit with the tangy theme – since they had rhubarb and yoghurt in them.
The original recipe made a large cake, but I made small cakes instead. I’m calling them muffins because the rather thick batter is mixed like a muffin rather than a cake – but the texture of them is very cake-like, similar to a butter cake. They look quite flat, but they were very good and moist. The original recipe called for a tablespoon of rose water, which I halved because I was worried that it would be too soapy. Half a tablespoon gave them a faint, sweet, fragrance that went really well with the rhubarb. I think I worried needlessly, a whole tablespoon probably would’ve been fine!
I gave a couple of muffins to my colleague, and she has promised me more rhubarb in the future. Sounds good to me!
See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.
Update: See the round up for this week at My Food Trail.
Rhubarb and yoghurt muffins
Adapted from: Vegetarian cooking, a commonsense guide
150g finely sliced rhubarb (plus a couple of stems, thinly sliced, for decoration)
250g caster sugar
310g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125g plain yoghurt
1 tablespoon rosewater
125g unsalted butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
In a bowl, mix together the rhubarb and sugar. Sift the flour over, and mix into the rhubarb mixture. Stir in the vanilla, egg, yoghurt, rosewater and butter until just combined (the mixture will be very thick).
Spoon the batter into the muffin trays, and decorate with the extra pieces of rhubarb. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the muffins comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and turn out on to a wire rack to cool.
Sook
April 5, 2010 @ 5:13 am
The muffins look so beautiful!
Hannah
April 5, 2010 @ 5:27 am
I think most people would agree that trading an ingredient for a baked good is a pretty sweet deal (figuratively and literally)! I've only had rhubarb stewed and in crumbles before, so this looks really interesting.
Plus, the rustic appearance is gorgeous!
Vee - A Melbourne Munchkin.
April 5, 2010 @ 8:27 am
Yum, I'm just having a cafe-bought blueberry muffin as I'm reading this, and eyeing it rather resentfully! I'm not the biggest fan of rhubarb but baked into muffins or pies I think they're just lovely! Did you bake these in a muffin pan and then wrap them after?
Chanel11
April 5, 2010 @ 10:19 am
That's not cheating! Just some good luck. They look yummy 🙂
Conor @ HoldtheBeef
April 6, 2010 @ 11:26 pm
I'm so excited about rhubarb season being almost here (I'm easily excited by rhubarb). These look so good, and you've given me an excellent idea – I'm going to try adding some rosewater to my stewed rhubarb next time I make up a batch (was hoping it would be today but rhubarb is still probing difficult to find, boo).
Ali-K
April 7, 2010 @ 1:17 pm
Hi Agnes, I don't think I've visited your blog before. I saw some of your comments on other people's posts and thought I'd swing past. Great photos of the rhubarb muffins. I agree with your thoughts of sharing homegrown food. If only I had a bigger garden, I encourage swaps! Instead I'm just a taker. If anyone has lemons at work they know to bring them to me.
Agnes
April 7, 2010 @ 7:05 pm
Sook: thanks!
Hannah: I haven't cooked much with rhubarb, so I thought I'd try it in a cakey thing rather than the usual crumble.
Vee: Nope, I just shoved baking paper into the muffin tins and spooned the batter on top. Muffin cases on the cheap!
Chanel: They were surprisingly yummy…. I ate most of them!
Conor: You need to make friends with gardeners!
Ali-K: thanks for the visit and comment 🙂 I wish I grew enough food to do swaps too, unfortunately I only managed herbs and a handful of tomatoes this year!
Adrian @ Food Rehab
April 8, 2010 @ 8:19 pm
I've had a muffin day this week. I was hoping to put a stop this issue but now your post had enticed yet another one. hehe
Love yogurt in muffins, it makes them a little more moist. Muffin and Cake like huh…well, you can call these caffins?! LOL
Maria@TheGourmetChallenge
April 9, 2010 @ 12:28 pm
lol, I agree…everything is better in miniature form. I love the rhubarb sitting ontop, its looks very pretty!
April @ My Food Trail
April 11, 2010 @ 7:59 pm
These muffins look so pretty! I love the wrappers on them too! Very muffin-esque! 🙂
Wow, you're still painting?! I remember you saying you were painting a couple of months ago too. Do you have much to go?
Agnes
April 11, 2010 @ 9:26 pm
Adrian: caffins? Hehee… or there's always muffcakes, right?!
Maria: things in miniature = win!
April: yep, still painting! We only do a couple of rooms each long weekend. So it's taking a while. But not too much more to go – upstairs hall, main bathroom, spare room and my brother's room (maybe). Two more long weekends and we'll be done! Hooray!!
Jo - SecondHelping
April 12, 2010 @ 4:59 pm
I would love one of those with a cuppa right about now!